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The Conscience of the King (episode)
An actor traveling aboard the Enterprise may be a former governor who ordered a mass-murder twenty years ago. Summary The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) is diverted from its normal mission to investigate a discovery by Doctor Thomas Leighton - a new synthetic food. When they arrive, Kirk learns the discovery is instead Leighton's firm belief that a travelling actor, Anton Karidian, is actually Kodos the Executioner, a man who ordered the murder of 4,000 colonists on Tarsus IV. Leighton is one of only nine people who actually saw Kodos; Kirk is another. At first convinced Kodos is dead, Kirk's research turns up enough information to pique his curiosity about Leighton's claim, so he returns to the planet in hopes of meeting Karidian in person. While walking with Karidian's lovely daughter Lenore, Kirk discovers Leighton's body. Truly suspicious now, Kirk calls in a favor; he has his friend Captain Jon Daily strand the actors, so they are forced to ask the Enterprise for help. Spock becomes concerned about the captain's behavior. Researching, he learns enough to raise his own suspicions, including the distrubing fact that of the nine eyewitnesses who could positively identify Kodos, seven are now dead. And whenever one died, the Karidian Players were somewhere near. Only Kirk and Lieutenant Kevin Riley remain alive. And then, someone poisons Riley, very nearly killing him. Spock is now certain Karidian and Kodos are the same man, but Kirk remains unsure. Their discussion is interrupted by the hum of a overloading phaser. Somewhere in Kirk's quarters is a potential explosive that can take out the entire deck. Kirk finds and disposes of it seconds before it explodes. Kirk is finally driven to confront Karidian, asking him point blank whether he is Kodos. Karidian gives him an evasive answer, but does perform a short speech for the purposes of voice comparison. Meanwhile, in sickbay, the recovering Lieutenant Riley overheads McCoy's log entry, learning that Karidian is suspected of being Kodos, the man who murdered Riley's family. The voiceprint comparison is close, very close, but when a man's life is at stake, very close isn't good enough. The Karidian Players begin a presentation of Hamlet. Riley, with a stolen phaser, sneaks backstage. Kirk manages to talk him out of killing Karidian, who overhears their sotto voce conversation. Kirk is still backstage when Karidian and his daughter Lenore discuss what he overheard. Karidian learns, to his horror, that Lenore killed seven of the nine witnesses who could identify him, and plans to kill the remaining two after the performance. Kirk summons a security guard to take them into custody; Lenore snatches his weapon and runs on stage. Karidian, desperate there should be no more blood on his hands, steps between her and Kirk as she fires; the shot is fatal. Twenty years after earning the name, Kodos the Executioner is dead. Memorable Quotes "Even in this corner of the galaxy, Captain, two plus two equals four. Almost certainly, an attempt will be made to kill you. Why do you invite death?" - Spock "What if you decide he IS Kodos? What then? Do you play God, carry his head through the corridors in triumph? That won't bring back the dead, Jim!" "No. But they may rest easier." - Kirk and McCoy, on what to do if Karidian is Kodos "My child! My child! You've left me nothing! You were the one thing in my life, untouched by what I'd done." - Karidian, on learning Lenore was a mass murderer. "And this ship: all this power, surging and throbbing. Yet under control. Are you like that Captain?" - Lenore to Captain Kirk Background Information * Matt Groening, creator of ''The Simpsons'' named his recurring alien characters Kang and Kodos, after a character in TOS: "Day of the Dove" and the character from this episode. * Kirk's quarters are labeled as 3F 121. * Arnold Moss delivers a truly powerful performance in this episode and Barbara Anderson is equally good, playing a range from flirtatious to angry to insane. * Excellent irony is on display in The Conscience of the King in several scenes: the blood on Karidian's hands in the teaser, and the lines concerning revenge that Karidian speaks from "Hamlet" as Kevin Riley prepares to use a phaser on him. * Kevin Thomas Riley, played for laughs in The Naked Time, is a tragic figure in this episode, victim of an attempt on his own life and of Kodos' murder of his parents. * The preview for this episode features an alternate edit of Kirk searching for the overloaded phaser in his quarters. It was unused because you can clearly see the plywood under the mattress of his bunk! * The humanity of Spock comes through again in this episode. He is very empassioned as he describes the deaths on Tarsus IV. * Lenore's line, noted above, must be the most racy dialogue ever to appear in the original series. * This is the only appearance of the shuttle bay observation deck. * McCoy's cabinet has two skulls in it for the first time in this episode. * When Spock declines to have a drink with McCoy by saying that his people were "spared the dubious benefits of alcohol," McCoy scorns Spock's refusal by stating that he now knows why Vulcan was conquered. This is contradicted in The Immunity Syndrome when Spock says Vulcan has not been conquered in its collective memory. * The equipment-filled alcove that McCoy and Spock pass in the corridor as they discuss Kodos the Executioner is labeled "Engineering Circuit Bay." * This is the only episode that shows night-time on the Enterprise. Kirk says that they try to approximate night and day as closely as possible. * "Beyond Antares", dreamlike and rendered beautifully by Nichelle Nichols, adds excellent atmosphere to this episode. The song was written by Wilbur Hatch with lyrics by Gene L. Coon. It is sung again in modified form in The Changeling. Nichelle Nichols got to interact with the Vulcan harp again in Elaan of Troyius, but that scene was cut. * The voice of Captain Daily is the same voice used for "Starbase Operations" in The Menagerie, Part I, and is the same actor seen as "Mike", one of Kirk's old classmates at the bar in Court Martial. The actor's name is probably Tom Curtis. * The city in the background out Tom Leighton's window is the same one used as Mojave in The Cage. The window itself was used in the Delta Vega lithium cracking station set in Where No Man Has Gone Before. * The ship's theatre is a redress of the Engineering set. * Joseph Mullendore's score for this episode is very memorable, but would not fit as stock music in the more science-fiction-oriented episodes to come. Pieces of it can be heard again in Shore Leave, The City on the Edge of Forever and, most notably, in the teaser of The Return of the Archons. * Although never directly stated, this episode seems to be an allegory about the search for Nazi war criminals after World War II. Unanswered Questions * What was James Kirk doing on Tarsus IV at the approximate age of thirteen? Were members of his family also killed at the order of Kodos? Links and References Main Cast * William Shatner as Kirk * Leonard Nimoy as Spock * DeForest Kelley as McCoy * Nichelle Nichols as Uhura * Grace Lee Whitney as Rand Guest Stars * Arnold Moss as Anton Karidian * Barbara Anderson as Lenore Karidian * Bruce Hyde as Kevin Thomas Riley * William Sargent as Thomas Leighton * Natalie Norwick as Martha Leighton * David Troy as Larry Matson * Karl Bruck as King Duncan * Marc Adams as Prince Hamlet * Eddie Paskey as Leslie * Tom Curtis? as Jon Daily (voice) * Majel Barrett as the Voice of Computer * Frank da Vinci as Vinci (uncredited) * Ron Veto as Harrison (uncredited) * Davis Roberts as Lewis (uncredited) References Arcturian; Astral Queen; Benecia colony, "Beyond Antares"; Cygnia Minor; Jon Daily; double red alert; D. Eames; Galactic Cultural Exchange Project; "Hamlet"; Karidian Company of Players; Kodos the Executioner; E. Molson; Planet Q; quarterly physical; Saurian brandy; William Shakespheare; Tarsus IV; tetralubisol; Vulcan harp. Conscience of the King, Thede:Kodos, der Henker